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From the newswire: "Mark Neiweem, a 28-year-old Chicago activist, pleaded guilty in Cook County Court yesterday [April 11, 2013] to felony charges brought on by interactions with undercover Chicago police officers who had infiltrated activist groups prior to last May's NATO protests. Neiweem pleaded guilty to a probation violation charge from a previous conviction and to solicitation and attempted possession of an explosive or incendiary device. Neiweem, who had spent 329 continuous days in the appalling conditions of Cook County Jail while awaiting trial, will now serve out the remainder of a 3-year sentence in a state prison. He is expected to receive credit for time served and other reductions in the duration of his incarceration for good behavior.

"The politically motivated prosecution and abuse Mark suffered in Cook County Jail point to a degree of coordinated state repression and coercion which was physically and psychologically unbearable," said Rachel Unterman of the NATO 5 Defense Committee. Read more | NATO5 Support Committee

A Chicago media activist looks at two heralded media outlets: the forthcoming Al Jazeera America, and Chicago Public Radio station WBEZ, and writes: "Al Jazeera and WBEZ are guided by lofty ideals, but only sometimes. What can be done to hold them to account to those ideals? I took a closer look at both WBEZ Chicago Public Media and Al Jazeera America and what I found confirms the need for an in-depth examination of the governance of U.S. public media -- and the need for a wide distribution of the findings." Read more

"Thousands of teachers, school workers, parents and students joined a mass protest led by the Chicago Teachers Union Wednesday against the city’s plan to close 54 schools, most of them in African-American neighborhoods. About 150 people sat down in the road outside Chicago City Hall and locked their arms together, prepared to risk arrest. Roughly 130 people were detained by police." [via] See photos

On March 20th, 2003, shortly after more than 18,000 antiwar protesters marched against the escalation of the war in Iraq, in so doing overtaking control of the six-lane highway of Lake Shore Drive, in one of the landmark protests in Chicago history.

The protest garnered international attention at the time. Some believe that the coverage embarrassed the local administration, who then ordered police to block the march, doing so at the intersection of Michigan and Oak and arresting its participants. The result was the largest mass-arrest in Chicago history (about 860 arrested), with more arrests in one evening than in a week of the vaunted 1968 Democratic National Convention protests.

In subsequent years, activists commemorated the 2003 protest by trying to resume the march down Michigan Avenue, but again facing resistance by the administration. In 2006, activists finally won the right to do so after three years of struggle, but they continued to face resistance by the city. Activists also saw foot-dragging in the courts when activists sued the city over the suppression of the rights of free speech and freedom of assembly; a multimillion-dollar settlement was reached nearly nine years after the Lake Shore Drive takeover (the lawsuit over the war protest was longer than the war that was protested against).

For years, activists with the Chicago south side group FLY (Fearless Leading by the Youth) have pressured the Chicago establishment, particularly the University of Chicago, to re-establish one or more adult trauma centers on Chicago's south side (where there are currently no adult trauma centers). FLY has been particularly active on this issue ever since one of their members died in part because he couldn't be sent to a trauma center quickly enough.

Less than 2 hours after a petition to remove prosecutor Carmen Ortiz hit whitehouse.gov, President Obama raised the threshold for an official response from 25,000 to 100,000. DEMAND JUSTICE FOR AARON SWARTZ. Here's the petition - it already has 40,000 signatures. We can do it, then bring the ruckus to the bastard in chief was has declared an information war against us.https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/remove-united-states-district-...

On Monday, December 3rd, activists began offering bread and soup to feed the lines that formed in Federal Plaza, and after three days of breadlines, we saw the erection of the shantytown called Durbinville. It is long past time for people to recognize the relationship between the suffering Americans endured under Herbert Hoover and what we suffer today. People are calling our leaders to make good on the trust of the people who voted for them and finally "reverse the policies of the previous administration", as FDR was able to boast in his pivotal 1934 State of the Union Address. The event and photos of the shantytown protest

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Chicago area Wal-Marts today as holiday shoppers crowded the stores for Black Friday sales. A group of Wal-Mart employees called the Organization United for Respect at Wal-Mart (OUR Walmart) transported protesters around the city in buses. Protesters want the nation’s largest retailer to offer more dependable schedules, better health care and higher wages to employees.
PHOTO CREDIT: http://johngress.com/http://www.wbez.org/news/labor-groups-employees-protest-during-black-fri...

On Tuesday, September 18th, the Chicago Teachers Union House of Delegates voted 98 percent to 2 percent to endits nine-day-long strike, the first CTU strike in 25 years. The proposed deal includes a marked salary increase for teachers and the right for teachers to make their own lesson plans. The deal also excludes the threatened elimination of merit pay, lanes (achievement for advanced degrees) and steps (achievement for experience). When asked on Democracy Now! if the CTU won this strike, CTU president Karen Lewis responded: "Absolutely".